Divine Comedy
author
Dante Alighieri
(Florence, 1265 - 1321, Ravenna)
author
Pietro Fraticelli
(Florence, 1803 - 1866)
publisher
G. Barbèra
(established Florence, 1840)
binder
Tiffany & Company
(established New York, 1837)
Date1879
Place MadeFlorence, Tuscany, Italy, Europe
MediumInk on paper bound in leather with silver decoration
Dimensions19.2 x 12.7 x 8.7 cm (7 9/16 x 5 x 3 7/16 in.)
ClassificationsBooks
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession number2.d.1.8
Description1 v., 723, cxxx pages ; 12°Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner and the novelist F. Marion Crawford bonded over a love of the Italian poet Dante. Their close relationship inspired rumors of an affair. It is impossible to know whether or not the two had a physical affair, but the surviving traces of their mutual admiration have romantic undertones.The perceived attachment between Isabella and Frank likely precipitated the young author's abrupt departure from Boston in the spring of 1883. Crawford spent the rest of his life in Sorrento, where he was a prolific writer and a married father of four children. When Crawford visited the States in 1893, he and Isabella reconnected. Crawford had their modern copies of Dante's Divine Comedy interleaved and bound in green leather by Tiffany & Co. in New York. Each of the silver clasps are engraved: "The two are one."
Id720772
Last Updated8/9/24
EmbARK ObjectID13374
Source ID2326
